The Real Blogger Status

One blog publishing technique, discouraged by Blogger , involves "automated posting". Content created with scripts and programs , rather than by hand. Some blog owners want to make their blog part of their social networking strategy. That is a laudable goal - but the blog has to have its own distinct content , as well.

No matter what Blogger does with improving the spam classification process, they will always generate some false positive classifications . The more that they improve the classification process overall, the more obscure the false positive classifications will be. Some false positives will require intense investigation of the blogs, to identify the relationships between the blogs involved - and to prove, to Blogger Policy Review staff, that a false positive classification is present. Some time ago, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , I had occasion to deal with a blog owner who was a currency trader, by profession. This person had published a cluster of blogs, where he discussed legitimate issues involved in currency trading . Currency trading is an essential part of exchange of merchandise , between different countries (the export / import business) - and the Blogger spam classification process had deleted his blogs, as suspected spam hosts.

The World Wide Web - the most popular service that runs on the Internet - contains millions of websites, all interconnected. Why do they call it a "web", anyway? This blog, and my blog cluster , are a microcosm of that concept. Many blogs, and static websites, participate similarly. Affiliate networks are, likewise, a part of the web. This blog has several casual affiliate links, with other blogs providing similar content. Affiliate networks let the publishers of one website say to their readers Hey, here's another website with similar information! and the readers of one blog can read another blog / website for different / more insight.

In the now distant past, one popular attraction in a theme park (then, called an "amusement park") would be a fun house, or maze . My favourite section of a fun house would be the "hall of mirrors" - a maze where all of the walls were mirrors. One person, entering the hall at one end would be seen in dozens of mirrors, all reflecting an image from other mirrors. You would see one person, and would have fun trying to decide whether that person was right in front of you, or perhaps a few feet away from you, with his / her image reflected off dozens of mirrors.

Our newest buddy, Davidson , is proposing the perfect solution for the spam problem - Spoogle. we will have to develop another Google you need a competitor in this field if not nobody can make any income from the point you are driving at and soon if your opinion goes through you will have lesser people patronizing Google and blogger and Google affiliates mark my word for that. This is the best news of the week. The spammers can have their own Advertising platform. Blogging platform. Browser. Email system. Search engine. They can PTC, PTS, and PTW all they want. And yes, there would be lesser (sic) people in Google. Count the number of spammers in Google right now, subtract them, and add them all to Sploogle. Good riddance. Don't block the door, on the way out. Oh, if life was so simple. >> Top

One of the reasons why The Shell Game / Three Card Monte is a legendary fixture, in some cities, is that it's a favourite feature in some magic shows. The magician uses sleight of hand to move the pea or Queen of Spades around, and confuse the audience. It's the same game, just in different settings. The street corner version is more exciting. You're trying to win some money, and the scammer is trying to steal your camera, purse, or wallet. The parlor show is more fun. You're seated, having a drink, and watching. You pay for either show - just in different ways.

If you're a fan of "spy" movies and novels , you may know about the concept of "intelligence" networks. These networks are composed of people who devote their time to clandestinely gathering and sending information, from one country to another. Intelligence networks are large, and contain confusing and redundant casts of characters. These large numbers are necessary, to prevent the host country from detecting and stopping the activities of the networks.

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see the innocent question How do I redirect traffic, automatically, from my Blogger blog to my WordPress blog? or I just moved my blog to a real website - how do I get my readers from my Blogger blog to my website? This need, like redirecting traffic between BlogSpot URLs , is one feature that Blogger will probably not ever provide. If Blogger were to allow the automatic forwarding of traffic, from a Blogger blog to a non Google website, spammers could use BlogSpot blogs as gateways, and move their spam content around , at will. You can redirect traffic from a BlogSpot URL to a non BlogSpot URL - but you must use a properly setup custom domain , to do this. You can combine your Blogger blog(s) with a non Google website , if you think about it. Setup a virtual host pair, in the website domain. Publish your blog to the virtual host. Add a custom link bar to the blog, and the website. Use the same template on the blog and the webs...

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see the innocent question How do I redirect traffic, automatically, from one BlogSpot blog to another? or I just changed my blog name - how do I get my readers from the old URL to the new one? And this is one feature that Blogger will probably not ever provide.

Occasionally, some bloggers report confusion over whether their blogs have been tagged as splogs, after receiving some odd email. Your blog at http://myblog.blogspot.com/ has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: NONE. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible. The blog does not appear to be locked, nor does it's online status change. All that's seen is the ominous email notice. The response from Blogger Support is slightly encouraging. we have a bug in our system that has been sending those email inadvertently So if you get this email, apparently you can ignore it. Your blog should remain online, and accessible as before. Check your dashboard - you should have administrative access , and no need to worry. >> Top

In 1977, the late Charles Bronson - better known for his vigilante justice " Death Wish " movies - starred in a movie that capitalised on US paranoia about American - Soviet Russia relations. Set at the height of the Cold War era , the plot of Telefon featured 51 human time bombs - all ordinary Americans. Each had been hypnotised to perform as Soviet spies, when a specially coded telephone call was received, with each tasked to sabotage some specific portion of the American infrastructure. None of the 51 human time bombs had any conscious awareness of their intended roles. Each thought of her or him self as an ordinary American, and lived that way - until a phone call from an evil renegade Soviet agent triggered their personal hypnotic suggestion . The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. Remember. Miles to go before I sleep. In the action adventure genre of fiction (aka "spy...

Recently in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we've had direct contact with a few confirmed spammers . These are people who have submitted to the noxious 4 step spam confirmation protocol , and who have been given the full benefit of the doubt .

In the American game of baseball, each player while performing in the offensive role has three chances to swing the bat and hit the ball. If he does not connect with the ball in any way, on the third chance, he is "out" and goes to the bench. As a blogger, and when your blog is detected as hosting possible spam content , you have three strikes, too. An automated spam classification process, performed by a Blogger bot , inspects your blog, possibly with a few other blogs , and locks or deletes your blog. A manual review process, performed by people , inspects your blog again, and objectively asks whether or not it is actually hosting spam. This is done after you complete the sometimes hated 4 step review process . A second manual review process, performed by people , inspects your blog for a third time, and carefully asks whether the first two processes were correct. This is done after the review process, and is generally referred to as "escalation". This is the ...

Today, in the USA, we celebrate the national holiday of " Thanksgiving ". Many people call it "Turkey Day" because the traditional cooking for the holiday meal is centered around roast turkey. The words "gobble, gobble" have two meanings. Turkeys are attributed as making that sound, such as the cat makes "meow", and the dog "bow wow". Celebrants of the holiday eat a lot of food, also popularly expressed as "gobbling". So, we have a "double entendre", that is, still, relevant.

The 1978 cinema classic " Animal House ", which starred the late, great John Belushi as John Blutarsky, was a comedy about American 1960s college life. It was described by one reviewer as the best college comedy ever made. Nothing has ever come close to comedic perfection, and never will again. It focused on one fictional fraternity, Delta House, the rejects of the campus fraternity system at the college. The members of Delta house included screaming nuisances ( coyotes ), troglodytes and trolls ( hyenas ), and hapless morons ( turkeys ). Many inhabitants of Delta House, many years later, can be found as bloggers, posting in Blogger Help Forum . Coyotes are individuals who, unhappy with the way they are treated by Blogger, convince the general public (their reader population) to conduct a Distributed Denial Of Service attack against the forum. The owners of their namesake blog, The Daily Coyote , conducted a DDOS in April 2008, when it was locked as a suspected spam blog...

In my musings last month about spam blogs, and people victimised by spam blogs , I analogised the legendary college secret societies , and the impersonal and rude treatment of the unfortunates who did not get initiated. eventually, those who don't get elected will open their eyes, remove the blindfold, and find herself / himself in a pitiful group of rejects, all waiting (hopelessly) for that tap. The tap that never comes.

I've been advising folks about spam problems, and splog detection (both righteous and spurious ), for several years. Sometimes, the advice is about cleaning up the blog, and submitting it for review . Other times, it's about blogs unjustly accused of being spam . Occasionally, it's about a spam blog, that just can't be reviewed again , or maybe a old blog, that you just can't regain control .

One noticeable spam problem became visible in late 2009, thanks to yet another Blogger error. This error left a lot of bloggers ( some legitimate and others actually spammers ) reporting both confusion and indignation.

I'll be honest here. I was a nerd in college (and I am one even now ). So this story is one that I've only seen in movies - neither I, nor my friends, got even this far. College Secret Societies Some of them have no name even. There are no published entrance rules - membership is by invitation only, and rules are communicated by word of mouth. And the initiation process starts like this: The prospective members are blindfolded, and led to a dark room. The prospective members are put into a circle, in silence. The prospective members wait, for what will happen, they are told nothing. Periodically, one prospect will feel a slight tap on the shoulder. In silence, he / she will be taken by the hand, and led into another room where they will join the elite. And eventually, those who don't get elected will open their eyes, remove the blindfold, and find herself / himself in a pitiful group of rejects, all waiting (hopelessly) for that tap. The tap that never comes.

Recently, we've seen that Google, StopBadware.Org, and various other services, are stepping up the fight against malware distributed by Blogger blogs. Not only blogs actively distributing malware, and blogs linking directly to web sites that distribute malware, are affected. In one identified case, a blog that linked to a "clean" web site, that linked to another web site where malware was distributed , was locked. In other cases, blogs that use dodgy accessories are being targeted. It seems now that many of the reported URLs have a 'BlogLinker.com' code snippet in them- *please* stay away from this widget in the future; it is completely nefarious.